(Is this the right forum?)
I seriously think I suffer from OCD about these things. I just want to give a little explination on some of the fire alarm equiptment that I own.

If you are curious, my entire collection came from ebay.

http://i445.photobucket.com/albums/qq176/PVT8/HPIM29551.jpg
Left to right: Wheelock MT, Honeywell S464A, and Notifier NBG-12L.
The BG-12 was my first ever pull station. The MT was my first electronic horn strobe, which makes its sound via a tone generator. It makes 8 different sounds and is controlled by dip switches.

http://i445.photobucket.com/albums/qq176/PVT8/HPIM29531.jpg
My 2 simplex pulls. I actually have 4 of these. One is newer and I compleatly raped it because they aren't made as well as the 2 pictured here. The other does not feel like working, so I am in the process of breaking that one. I have slammed it against the door, punched and kicked it, and it refuses to break. Except for the lock, that's broken. That one and the 2 pictured are SOOO much better made than my newer one.

http://i445.photobucket.com/albums/qq176/PVT8/HPIM29541.jpg Excuse the mess of crap under my bed! LOL
2 simplex pulls again, also my 2 Simplex 9838 horns. Instead of a tone generator, they make a sound by vibrating a piece of metal. Hence, it is an electromechanical horn. The strobe lights behind them are mounted on plates which allows you to mount the horns on them.

I am also getting a fire alarm control panel for christmas and I may post pictures of it when the time comes.

Comments? Questions? It's a strange hobby I know, but I have learned a lot of electronics since I have become interested in them.

AftershockVibe

You're right... that is a weird hobby!

Do you plan on actually wiring them up to something? Kind of contrary to their intended purpose I know... but ironically a rack of these would be awesome for starting off firework displays!!! The electronics skill required would be pretty minimal.

soljarag

I live in an apartment complex in texas (its really new, maybe 2 yrs old) and last friday I woke up for work and decided to put on the heat for the first time. about 15 seconds later, the fire alarm started to go off. It scared the heck out of me! then 10 seconds later, it quit.

I'm not sure what caused it, but it hasnt done it since..... I guess something smoked when it hasnt been turned on in awhle....

ProwerBot

AftershockVibe wrote:

You're right... that is a weird hobby!

Do you plan on actually wiring them up to something? Kind of contrary to their intended purpose I know... but ironically a rack of these would be awesome for starting off firework displays!!! The electronics skill required would be pretty minimal.

I have a 16v power supply I got from an old laptop I use to set off the alarms. Right now, I just wire the alarm to the pull station like a lightswitch. They are running underpowered on 16v, however the control panel I am getting puts out 24v which is what they are rated for.

haha, strange indeed, but good to see there are others out there that make their own path!

andysart380

i opened this up thinking it said fire arms and i was like oh boy...but you totally let me down here,,,,,still thats an odd hobby but its still pretty cool because i dont even know how to get my hands on any of those

Crinoid

I have an opposite trend: strong dislike of fire alarms. Not the a nice abstract idea of saving lives, but their interference with daily living, including cooking, baking or soldering. Add sounds of neighbours' alarm going on almost every day at food preparation time, and law requirement to have them, to get the whole picture.

I guess you do not have a this problem at all, otherwise you wouldn't have such hobby .

guggs

Quite often my fire alarms (smoke detectors) activate when I'm cooking e.g. bacon, sausages, which is quite annoying. On Saturday I had a genuine emergency situation, fire in the hearth / grate under a blocked chimney, smoke billowing into the room but none of the smoke detectors did anything at all. Very, very worrying - the wrong type of smoke ? Didn't contain any fat residue ? Don't know, you experts tell me ...

ProwerBot

guggs wrote:

Quite often my fire alarms (smoke detectors) activate when I'm cooking e.g. bacon, sausages, which is quite annoying. On Saturday I had a genuine emergency situation, fire in the hearth / grate under a blocked chimney, smoke billowing into the room but none of the smoke detectors did anything at all. Very, very worrying - the wrong type of smoke ? Didn't contain any fat residue ? Don't know, you experts tell me ...

There ARE actually 2 kinds of smoke detectors. Each detect smoke differently and each have their dis/advantages.

Ionization detectors detect fires that emit more of an invisible smoke (such as from cooking) and get really hot. They use a chamber that contains radioactive material, but there is so little you could probably eat that thing and it wouldn't do anything (though I do not recommend it)

Photoelectric smoke detectors detect more smoldering fires which, if you can tell, most of the people who die in fires die from smoke inhalation. These work on a IR beam and when smoke enters the chamber, it distorts it and touches a reciever which sets it off.

Which one is better? Photoelectric smokes are the better ones, but it's a good idea to have a combonation of both.

ProwerBot

Some christmas presents!

http://i445.photobucket.com/albums/qq176/PVT8/IM000929.jpg
I got my fire alarm control panel, a gamewell flex 402, which is made by fire lite and rebranded by gamewell. It's actually a fire lite ms-2, the 2 meaning it has 2 zones. Also a new System Sensor SpectrAlert Horn/strobe combo. It is multi-candela which means I can select how bright it is.